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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



LC Control Number 




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THEMES OE THANKFULNESS. 



THA^^KSaiVI^a SERMOI^, 



./ 



OF THE 



EEY. GEO. W. PEPPER, Chaplain F. S. A., 

Delivered he/ore the Governor and merahers of the Legislature^ in the 
Cwpitol, Raleigh, IS. C, Noveraher mth, 1868. 



n 



[Re-publisbed from the North Carolina Standard, Dec. oth.] 

< 



We publish this morning, at the request of 
a large number of friends, the eloquent 
Thanksgiving Sermon of Rev. George W. 
Pepper. Extended commendation of this 
sermon is unnecessary. We invite our rea- 
ders to peruse it carefully. It would have 
been published earlier, but official duties pre- 
vented the gentleman from preparing even so 
brief a sketch. 



"Enter into His <^ates with thanksgiving, and 
into His Courts with praise."— Psa^/nlOOf/^. 

Wondrnusly l)eautitu! are the ancient 
Psahns of David. These jjccrless composi- 
tions in splendor of diction and adaptedness 
to every human event, are not surpassed by 
any portion of the Sacred Book. They 
furnish affliction with words of comfort, de- 
spondency with expressions of hope, and 
gladness with strains of triumph. We love 
these grand outbursts of a kingly heart, as 
they portray the smitten soul of the penitent, 
the l)itter tears of the returning prodigal, 
and tiie exulting gratitu<le ot the emancipa- 
ted soul. 

We fail to realize the "oeauty and gran- 
deur of the Psalms, unless we remember 
that they weie written for the Temple ser- 
vice, and sung by well trained choristers. 
Praise was the cliief emph)yment of the 
Jewish church. The voice of rejoicing wab 
heard daily in the tHbern icles. In Hi-aven 
the angels and the sacramental host are per- 
petually praising God. The world, ere it 
groaned l)enearli the curse, was one grand 
temple of praise. Tlie spangled heavens 
declared his glory. The stars in their ever- 
larsting march sung praises in tiie grandest 
snusic to Him who sits upon the Throne. 
The mountains, the tyjjes of eternal power, 
proclaimed His gloriou> majesty. 

The Jews were celebrated for their tii 
umphni odes. From the day wlu-n they left 
Egypt tr) their decline and tall, the Jewish 
people Ipresented the sublime spectacle of a 
nation ot tiiMiiksoivers. (^ehoi<! that vast 



jubilant host, wending its way through the 
classic lands of Judea, to stand before God 
in the attitude of grateful worshippers 1 
Some of them from the purple vine tields; 
some from invaded borders ; some from des- 
olated h(mies; some from resounding vic- 
tories ; old prophets, like Moses, whose 
faces were bonedictions; stout warriors, ra- 
diant with victory ; old mothers in Israel, 
like Deborah ; young men and maidens, with 
the summer of life dawning on their brows ; 
j little children, whose eyes kindled with 
I beauty as they looked upon the grand and 
I beautiful image of their native land. They 
I pitched their ever-green booths on the sacred 
I hills of Judea, and held high festival in 
j commemoration of the distinguished good- 
I ness of their Deliverer. 

j Thanksgiving day is five generations old. 
I How grand that one of the Pil grims 
i on Plymouth Rock I There standing 
j on the ice bound coast this immortal band 
' offered up their first thanksgiving in the 
New World. 

Aye, amid the storm they sang, 

The stars heard and the sea. 
While the sounding anthem of the dim woods 
rung 

Witii the anthems of the free. 

Can we ever forget New England ? It is 
1 to the thankful piety of her Puritans that 
I we owe this hallowed day. Wherever her 
children are scattered over the earth's sur- 
I face, to-day they will travel back to in lov- 
j ing memory to the old homestead. This 
I Thanksgiving day will return to them 
brighter and fresher than ever. The moss 
on the ancient trees will brighten with No- 
vember lii^ht, and the tufts of grass will 
wear a sunnier green. 

In dear New England, since the lathers slept. 
The sweetest holiday, of all the year. 

Busy hands anrl joyous hearts all over the 
land are now engaged in the grand service 
ot praise. Gray-headed men and venerable 
matrons will repeat to the children and 
grandchildren that girdle them with beauty, 
the story of their early days. In sympatny 



with this good old custom we, too, have as- 
sembled in this historic Commons Hall to 
tune our American harps to the strains of the 
Hebrew bard. In looking over this l)rilliant 
assemblage, I see some on whose heads 
winter has left its snows ; some in the buoy- 
ancy of youth ; some clad in mourning. 
That mind must be dark, and that heart ad- 
amant, which, in reviewing the past year, 
cannot behold the many marks of Divine 
goodness to the Nation, to the family, to the 
Church, and to the individual. We are here 
to look upon the the bright lining on the 
clouds, to string our mercies upon a silver 
thread of praise. When one of the old 
guards of Napoleon, who had served the 
Emperor in days of triumph, lay dangerously 
wounded by a musket ball, while the sur- 
geon was probing above the soldier's heart 
to find the bullet, the i)rave hero's reply was, 
" A little deeper, and you will find the Em- 
peror." So in the soul of every Christian, 
the sentiment of gratitude has a conspicu 
ous place. 

Shall I not call upon this assembly to 
guide me to-day up into the mountain of 
Thanksgiving and offer their praise God lor 
his favors and mercies. Botii hands are full of 
blessings. The grumblers and evil prophets 
predicted that this year we were to have a 
financial crash, the nation's most sacred debt 
was to be repudiated. Grant's election has 
settled that question forever. This year we 
were to have the Cholera. Last year this 
Angel of death swept by .the x\tlantic sea- 
board and thousands perished as its shadow 
fell. There has been perfect health in all 
our borders. The winter was to crush out 
our harvests ; but in early July, God gave us 
gentle rains and sunl)eams, the fruits ripened 
and a glorious harvest waved and glittered 
like a a golden banner. Memorable will 
indeed this day of Thanksgiving be to the 
dwellers of the South, Come forward then 
children of the beneficent Father. The Cap- 
tol flings open its portals, let us sing the 
praises of the Lord and His Majestic glory. 

We should thank God for the extent and vari- 
etyof the yiational domain. We have the no 
blest heritage and the fairest lands on earth. 
We have a country where the grand and the 
graceful, the awful and the lovely mingle 
together. Behold its splendid lakes, its fer- 
tile plains, its grand mountains, its lovely 
valleys, its sweeping prairies, its entrancing 
landscapes, audits sky soft and blue as that 
which bends over the faded spleud(M-s of 
Italy, That acute observer and great friend 
of America, De Tocqueville in his work on 
our country says : 'That the United States 
is the most magnificent dwelling place pre- 
pared by God for man's abode. In fashioning 
this great home for oppressed races tlie 
Creator gave us not a barrack, but a palace, 
not a desert but an Alhambra. When Hor- 
ace Greeley made his first visit to England, he 
wrote back to Americans to be sure if they 
contemplated a trip to Europe, to take a 
long earnest gaze at the sun, for the thing 
called sun in England, only shone occasion- 
ally and bore little resemblance to its Ameri- 



can namesake. Oh ! that the crowned 
princes and kings of E irope would 
come across the ocean, and behold the 
greatness of the American Republic. With 
forty millions of people with a territory 
greater than all Europe, with a climate un- 
surpassed, with a soil fruitful as God's love, 
with immense valleys, the fruits and fleeces 
of which bid fair to rival the golden sands 
of our streams, as well as the treasuries of 
our enchanted rocks. 
Great God, we thank thee for this Home 

This bounteous birthland of the free . ^/\^ 
Where wanderers from afar may comi^^^l /ifV^ 

And breathe the air of liberty. Jn* >^A 

Still may her flowers untrampled sprifl^, I " 

Her harvests wave, her cities rise — 
And yet till Time shall fold bis wing 

Remain Earth's loveliest paradise. 

A nation with such peerless gifts can af- 
ford to exercise a broad and generous spirit 
of magnanimity to the brave but mistaken 
soldiers of the South, who, tor four tempest- 
uous years, upheld .heir banner with a gal- 
lantry, worthy of a purer cause. The reck- 
less defiance of suffering and death exhibi- 
ted by the soldiers of Lee and Johnston, 
in the Ijlaze ol battle, entitles them to 
generous consideration and magnan- 
imous treatment. The spirit of proscrip- 
tion is the spirit of perdition ! The 
spirit of charity is the spirit of Heaven. Let 
the great Ilepublican party and its chief^ 
General Grant, place another pillar and 
crown of gold in the re.'eemed nation, by 
proclaiming a general amnesty to all politi- 
cal offenders. 

We should be thankful for our system of 
Oovernment., combining as it does the great- 
est security with the largest liberty. The 
priceless blessings of our government may be 
understood and appreciated by a collation 
of the various forms of civil polity which 
existed in the world. The first was mou<v 
cratic, corresponding to an absolute monar 
chy of the present day. The second form 
WPS theocratic, the I'ulers of which were 
called Hierarchs. The third was aristocrat- 
ic, the few noble gf)verning the many. The 
fourth anfl best of all was democratic. The- 
ocracies and an istocr.icies are founded on 
the superiority of races. Monarchies have 
been tried and have fa'ded. Hierarr-hies 
have l)een tried and have failed. Arristoc- 
racies have been tried, anfl they also have 
failed. Fired by a Heaven-enkindled zeal 
in behalf of man, our revolutionary fathers, 
composed of exiles from all lands, flung the 
banners of Deiuociacy to the l)reeze, appeal- 
ing to High Heaven for the vindication and 
success of their cause. God bent from the 
splendors of His Throne and blessed the 
sword of Washington. The crippled colony 
emerged from obscurity, becoming, as it is 
now, Lhe greatest Hepublican Empire in the 
world, knowing no boundaries save the two 
great oceans. The hopes of tyrants were 
defeated. Then the songs of our venerated 
fathers l)urst forth like the voice of many 
waters and the noise of mighty tluinderings. 
Thank God we have a free press, a free gos- 
pel, and a free land. America is to teach 



the nations the true tlieory of government. 
Hail to the day winch shall see them risino- 
in their majesty twinging their naked breasts 
ajiainst the kings. 

From rock hound Maine to the golden 
shores of the Pacific enfranchised millions 
swell the full chorus of liberty. Oh ! for 
the kingly heart of the royal bard that 
God might be adequately praised for 
his wonderful mercies. All Europe is 
catching inspiration from our success. Free- 
dom is everywhere extending her dominion. 
Spain looks up to tlie immortal Father. 
We hail her deliverance from the last Bour- 
bon. Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella has 
disappeared — the accursed inquisition that 
flevoured the fair Andalusia, turning the 
loveliest spot in Europe into a pandemo- 
nium, is destroyed. Spain, the mother of 
Hel>rew poets, has signalized her progress 
among the nations i:)y taking dmvn the pic- 
ture of Isal)ella an 1 placing in its stead that 
of Washington. The sons of Italy burn 
with noble wrath, craving Garibaldi as their 
chief. Austria's surging millions are ad- 
vancing. England, the country of Bright 
and Gladstone, is' enfranchising additional 
thousands. The genius of America is abroad. 
Her voice is heard in the dungeons of Euro 
pean despotism. In France, in Hungary, in 
Poland, the voice of earnest imprisoned pa- 
triots are urging " how long ?" This fiery 
spirit of revolution cannot be extinguished. 
In every region of the South men are waking 
up as from a nightmare. The Moslem of the 
old Mogul Empire feels the scimiter stir in 
its scal)l»ard, and he murmurs " God is 
great." The Irishman lays his hand once 
upon his trusty pike and hopes tor a day of 
vengeance. Japan opens iier gates and Pa- 
gan millions hear the gospel. China selects 
the Repu!)lican Burlingame as her messenger 
by the nations. The spirit of Washington 
is n)archin<; on. Convict ships, scaffolds 
and pools of blood, cannot quench the iu- 
destructil)ie principle of Right. It is older 
than mitres and thrones. 

"There is a sound on every sea, 

A voice on every wave, 
The watchword of the free, 

The antliem of tlie bnvc. 
From step to stej) it rings 

Throut>;h Europe's many climes , 

A knell to despot kings, " 

A sentence on their crimes ! 

Where'er a wind is rushing, I 

Where'er a heart is gusiiing ' 

The swelling sounds are lieard | 

Of man to free man calling 
Of broken fetters lalling, i 

And like the carol of "a cageless bird I 

The bursting shout of 

Freedom's i allying word." I 

The pntriotism of the American people j 
during the icar <md .ruice is a theme of thank- 1 
julnens. Patriotism or the k)ve ot country ; 
is a Ixautiful seniiment. There is a splendor j 
al»ont it which commends it to all men. It | 
is tins principle that arms the patriot in the ! 
defence of his country an<l impels eager \ 
flKiusands to share his fate. I 

It is this noble sentiment that l)inds man | 
to man; which associates with itself all the ' 
't ciiai'ities of home, sjx'aks the s inif la 



guage and recognizes a conimon interest. It 
inspires the Laplander to prefer the eternal 
sorrows of his country life to all the splendor 
and profusion of Asia, because it is his coun- 
try. The savage clings to his native land, 
however barren, and disdains to barter his 
independence. There is no nobler answer on 
record than that which w'as given by a fa- 
mous Chief of a savage tribe, to some Euro- 
peans who would have bribed him to give 
up his patrimony : " We were born," said 
he, " upon this spot ; our fathers are buried 
here. Shall we then say to these bones, rise 
up and let us go hence V The sentiment of 
patriotism is universal among nations. 

The Scotchman is aff'Cted by the sight of 
a thistle in a foreign land. It reminds him 
of the land of Wallace and of Bruce. The 
Shamrock, the chosen leaf of bard and chief, 
stirs the heart of the exiles of Erin, making 
them long for the arrival of the day when 
they shall muster under Emmet's immortal 
name. The Frenchman is aroused at a 
glimpse of the i^Ze?^?' de Us," for it awakens 
pleasant memories of sunny France. This 
noble virtue is not confined to any particu- 
lar age, language or nation. The Abde de 
Lisle, of France, relates of an Indian who, 
amid the splendors ot Paris, beholding a 
banana tree in the jardiii des plantes, bathed 
it with tears, and seemed for a moment to 
be transported to his own shores. 

The Ethiopian ^imagines that God made 
his sands and deserts, while angels were em- 
ployed to make the rest of the world. The 
Maltese, isolated on rocks, distinguished 
their lands by the appellation, " the flowers 
of the world." The Norwegians, proud of 
their barren summits, inscribed upon rix 
dollars, " spirit, loyalty, valor, and whatever 
is honorable, let the world learn among the 
rocks of Nf^rway." 

This fidelity to one's country is acknowl- 
edged by the fisherman as he sits by his cot- 
tage on the Atlantic or Pacific beach, and 
by the wild hunter of the Western plains. 
It is heralded in lands distant from each 
other and different in political institutions, 
in the plaudits of a Tell, a Washington, a 
Wallace, a Brutus, an Emmett and a Lincoln, 

It nerves the arm and fires the bosom in 
every scene and vicissitude of life, and when 
the patriot's closing eye is turned for the 
last time to the sun in the heavens, whether 
amid the shock of steel, or from the victo^ 
ries of [)eace, his last thought is his country, 
and his last prayer that its greatness may 
be coeval with the coming grandeur of 
God's eternal Son. 

The illustrious son of Chatham, brooding 
over the failure of the coalition against 
France, when stretched upon the bed of 
sickness,cxhausted l)y debility, and wrecked 
with pain, forgot his own sufferings and ex- 
claimed with his expiring breath, *'0h, my 
country." The philosophic and chivalrous 
Falklanrl, when his native land was rent by 
civil war, moved by this loyalty to country, 
reiterated in words which forever consecrates 
his memory, "peace for England." and perish- 
ed intrepidly in battle, defending that cause 
whinh his conscience told him was riiHit. 



We should de thankful for abundant har- 
vests. The fields have been covered with 
oolden crops, the gardens have blushed with 
ripe frail., the pastures are clothed with 
flocks, and all nature teems with tokens of 
our Maker's providential care ; the very 
rivers that run through the valleys, while 
they beautify the scenery, bear on their bo- 
soms the products of every clime for your 
enjoyment ! the air around you is scented 
with sweetness and echoes on every side 
with the cheering melody of song. What a 
scene is this to refresh and gladden man's 
heart, and to lift in adoring gratitude to 
the Giver of all good ! We hold it to be 
hardly possible for an individual to take his 
stand upon any elevated spot on a fine sum 
mer's day, and to survey the panorama of 
richness and of loveliness which is spiead 
out before him, all over canopied by the soft 
blue sky, looking the very image of Heav- 
en's protecting tenderness, without feeling 
touched with some sensations of God's good- 
ness, or sending up some gratitude to the 
Author of so many bounties. Who can 
s„and upon the summit of some lofty hill 
and survey in a glow ol excitement the wide 
extended fields, tinted with various hue, 
bathed in a flood ot light, or as he has pas 
sed in his rural stroll through fields ripe 
with corn, and observed the peaceful ears 
bending before each rustling breeze, or rip- 
pl'ng like an ocean of gold at every passing- 
gale. Who, I say, can have witnessed scenes 
like these without feeling his heart stirring 
within him with new and uncontrollable 
emotions? Andean we not find a scene 
similar to this? Will not our own land 
present it ? Hovv richly, how bountifully 
has America been blessed of God ? We had 
a genial seed time, followed by warm suns 
and refreshing showers; A few weeks roll- 
ed on, and our hills were luxuriant with 
verdure, and our valleys overflowing with 
corn. Then came the glorious harvest time, 
with its golden sheaves and rejoicing hus- 
bandmen, and stirring scenes ! Gleaners 
plying their busy task in the field, and barn- 
yards replete with produce ! x\nd look at 
us now. We have our granaries filled to j 
the full with corn. Ships from our shores 
freighted with food are bearing it to many 
distant nations. 

Consider God''s dealings with you as fami- 
lies, and you icill have materials for grate 
fill acknowledgments. Among the bright 
and peaceful creatures of our holy religion ; 
among those things which stamp with a pe- 
culiar and impressive beauty, will ever 
rank the delightful spectacle of a united 
family, connected for the most part by ties 
ot common blood, and having the same 
hopes, the same interests, the same common 
fears and joys. Let us glance at such a 
home. There are the calm and secret joys 
3f the domestic hearth, that l)rigi)t and con 
secrated spot, where husband and wile, pa- 
rents and children, brothers and sisters 
mingle their purest affections, their most 
intimate thoughts, their fondest hopes in 
unrestrained fellowship. No chalice ot 



earthly bliss is so sparkling, so little 
adulterated as that which they pass from 
hand to hand, not only on fes.ive times, but 
in their daily gathering around their own 
firesides. These homes are Edens, little 
enclosures of blessing,favored spots in earth's 
wide waste. There is something in the word 
home that wakes the kindler feelings of the 
human heart. No songs are sweet like those 
we hear among the boughs tiial shade the 
ancestral mansion 

Our grandest theme of. thankfulness is a 
restored Union. In Dresden there is an iron 
egg, the history of which is something like 
this. A young prince sent this iron egg to a 
lady to whom he was betrothed. She re- 
ceived it, held it in her hand, and looked at 
it with disdain. In hur indignation that he 
should send her such a gift, she cast it to 
the earth. When it touched the ground, a 
spring, cunningly hidden in the egg, opened 
and a silver yolk rolled out. She tt)uched a 
secret spring in the yolk and a golden chicken 
was revealed. She touched a spring in the 
chicken and a ruby crown was found within. 
She touched a spring in the crown, and 
within it was a diamond mtirriage ring. The 
great God in his mystery threw dcnvn to us 
an iron egg; it was rusted with tear? and 
clotted with blood. We took it in our 
hands and looked at it. We lifted 
our eyes to Heaven and said : "Great 
Father, what broods of devils may 
be hatched from this" Inii^ as we let it fall, a 
spring was touched, and a silver yolk rolled 
out tliat spread like a broad shield of pat- 
riotism all over the laiid in the days that 
followed the dismantling of Sumter. When 
the spring was touched again, there came 
out, not a single golden chicken, but a glo 
rious brood of them. Ellsworth, Banics, 
Burnside, Foote, Seigel. Shields, Logan, 
Meade, McPherson, Sheridan, Grant. TUen 
we found each a spring, and when we touch- 
ed the spring, we found yvithiii each a ruby . 
for a crown. 

Shields gave us Winchester, Logan D' 'nel- 
son; McPherson, Vicksburg; Sheridan, Five; 
Fords; Sherman, the Carolinas; Farragut, 
not a handsome name, l)Ut was it not a hand- 
some deed ? gave us New Orleans and Mo- 
bile; Grant the noblest Roman of them all, 
gave us the Republic. When all these rubies 
were gathered we put them in a crown. 



spring 



and in the crown there was 
we touched it and within vi/as the 
diamond ring of Union unbroken still ! and 
with God's help we have placed it on the 
nation's finger and she shall wear it ever 
more. Grant's election is a grand augury 
of the nation's future peace, prosperity and 
perpetuity. God save the Republic. 

Sail on, O Union, strong and o-reat 
Humanitj' with all its fears 
With all its hopes ot future years 
Is banging breathless on thy fate. 

What a o()()(lly heritage is ours. Its area 
is grander than that of Rome in its palmiest 
days. The ocean is studded with the na- 
tion's commerce, and our rivers are covered 
with floating palaces. America has the best, 



the freest government on the face of the 
earth. The weary and oppressed children 
of Europe are always welcome to her blessed 
shores. We liave two millions of farms and 
yet this is not one quarter of the national 
domain. We publish more newspapers and 
possess more schools than all Europe. Amer- 
icans invented steamlioats and the telegraph, 
ynd they are now buildiug the grandest rail- 
road in the world. The republic is not 
wanting in great and brilliant names. She 
can show to the world her shining paragons, 
the founders of the government. The De- 
claration of Independence, written by Jef- 
ferson is the undying monument ot our 
fathers glory. Every sentence of this im- 
mortal charter is a crushing thunderbolt 
against tyrant wrong. The brilliant crown 
to which our fathers aspired was patriotism. 
What a grand array of names — Benjamin 
Franklin^ who tamed the lightning and 
called the thunders sweet music. George 
Washington, an angel in human form. Then 
the brighest jewel of the later days the 
consummate flower of the present centu- 
ry, Abraham Lincoln. As he passed to a 
better world, the eternal gates opened unto 



him the grandest of all ovations. In the lit- 
erary world, we can point to such essayists 
as Emerson, Whipple, Holmes, Lowell and 
Curtis; to such iiisrorians as Bancroft, Ir- 
ving, Prescott and Motley ; to such soldiers 
as Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, Meade and 
Grant ; to such statesmen as Charles Sumner, 
Henry Wilson, Stanton, Chase and Colfax ; 
tn such poets as Whittier, Pierpont, Long 
fellow; to such sculptors as Powers and 
Crawford; to such orators as Phillips, 
Evarts and Simpson. Shall not the re- 
view of these wondrous national privi- 
leges cause to arise from our united hearts 
as from a living altar the incense of ado- 
ring praise to the fo'itstool of the Divine 
majesty ? Sons and daughters oT God, take 
your harps from the willows and I>reak forth 
unto singing. Sin^- unto the Loid with 
thanksgiving. Praise God in His sanctuary ; 
praise Him in the iinnameni of His power ; 
praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him 
and l)e exeeedino-ly ulad mm of the South, 
for the poisonous snake of slavei'v has been 
chased from your blooming paradise forever. 
Praise the Lord, Oii my soul and all that is 
within me Bless His holv name. 



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